Dishevelled: Poor Nigella was snapped a couple of days ago wearing two very obvious de-puffing under-eye masks

Mornings are unquestionably the worst part about getting on a bit. Specifically, pillow face. Not the kind you get from having too many fillers pumped into it (see Madonna, Kylie Minogue etc); rather the kind you get from an actual pillow.

It doesn't matter how early I retire, or what the thread count of my pillowcase, these days my morning face invariably resembles a blob of dough with two raisins stuck on it. It requires a minimum of three cups of strong tea and a considerable amount of coaxing, via various lotions and potions, to return it to its correct shape.

So I don't envy poor Nigella Lawson, who was snapped a couple of days ago jumping into a waiting car looking like she had just lost a fight with a hedge. Her hair was dishevelled, her face was make-up free - and she was wearing two very obvious de-puffing under-eye masks.

It may not have been her best look, but at 53, I say give the poor woman a break. After all, she has just got divorced from a man who tried to strangle her in public before apparently copping off with a stick insect.

A lesser woman would never have had the chutzpah. But Nigella's a busy girl. No time to worry about what the world thinks, and besides she's worth ten skinny minnies even without the make-up and the underwiring. It's actually quite impressive. Inspiring, even.

As a working mother, I'm always trying to come up with ways to cut corners: Nigella's on-the-hoof under-eye mask takes multi-tasking to a whole new level.

The great thing about these pre-cut, pre-soaked masks - and they come in all shapes and sizes - is that they require next to no effort and, unlike old-fashioned masks, there's no faffing around with water and flannels. You can use them anywhere: on an aeroplane, in bed at night, in front of the telly, at your desk (if you have an understanding boss).

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My favourites are by Skyn Iceland (Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels, £25, Marks & Spencer). These gel pads are infused with an array of tightening, brightening and generally miraculous products, including ginkgo biloba to relax blood vessels and improve blood flow and coenzyme Q10, a powerful antioxidant. Keep them in the fridge for added aah-appeal.

Judging by the luxe-y Net-a-Porter shopping bags she was carrying when the eye-mask snap was taken, Nigella's patches might well be from niche Japanese skincare range SKII. They come in a box of 14 (£59, exclusively from Harrods), and are designed to be used daily for two weeks, although you'll see an improvement after just one application.

'It may not have been her best look, but at 53, I say give the poor woman a break.'

Also worth checking out are Bliss's Triple O2 Eye Mask (£35 for box of 4 from blissworld.co.uk). These are the take-home version of the brand's signature oxygen facial. The infused pads contain freeze-dried algae and other ingredients to wake up and revitalise skin.

Estee Lauder do them too: Estee Lauder Stress Relief Eye Mask (£26 for ten pairs, from esteelauder.co.uk). What's great about these is that they are completely clear, so you really can sneak them on. If, like me, your decrepitude is not limited to the eye area, Sarah Chapman's Chin And Jaw Lift (£6 per sachet, sarahchapman.net) is a pre-soaked face sling containing skin-firming algae, plant collagen, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, rose and chamomile flower water to moisturise, lift, tighten and generally improve the appearance of the jawline.

Think Nigella looks mad in her eye masks? You should see this: it hooks around your ears and under the jaw, giving the wearer a Frankenstein-esque appearance.

It's not a patch on an actual facial with Chapman; but it's a close second.

And, with Hallowe'en just around the corner, you could even go trick-or-treating in it.

Sun protection isn't just for wusses

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, has always represented, for me, the epitome of French glamour. Intelligent, elegant, slender, well-dressed - but never prissy. She wears little or no make-up, and her white hair used to be cut short into one of those impossible gamine cuts that only French women seem able to pull off.

Sans SPF? Christine Lagard, normally so glamorous, now has skin with the smoothness of a walnut

Lately, though, her hair has gone a bit helmet, and she seems to have succumbed to the vice that so many of our continental sisters appear powerless to resist: sunbathing. Not only does she look like she's fallen face first on to a tennis court, her skin has the surface smoothness of a walnut.

You might say, 'who cares?', after all it's not her job to look nice, she's far too busy looking after all the world's money, but: a) you can bet your bottom dollar that she minds and b) it's a cautionary tale for those who think that sun protection is for wusses.

Sun damage is the classic enjoy-now-pay-later trap. It can take around 20 years to surface, meaning that how you treat your skin in your 20s will only start to show in your 40s. That's why so many of us find our skin falls off a cliff in our late 30s: it's all those carefree days in the sun finally catching up with us.

What to do? Well, it's never too late to protect your skin. You can keep brown spots and uneven pigmentation from worsening by using a daily sunscreen in your moisturiser. A good all-rounder is This Works In Transit Skin Defence (£29, thisworks.com), which has a broad spectrum spf of 30 and is ideal for normal to dry skins.

As to reversing damage, this is trickier. I have a theory that vertical wrinkles - such as in between the eyes and on the upper lip - are far more ageing than horizontal ones, since you get the former from frowning and sucking lemons, the latter from laughing.

Upper-lip wrinkles, aka 'the barcode', are best neutralised by injecting tiny amounts of filler into the lines. But be careful: too much and you'll end up with a trout pout. Make sure you use a qualified dermatologist, and not just the girl at your local salon, however nice or persuasive she may be.

And for uneven pigmentation, you can do a lot to reduce it with over-the-counter brightening creams. Clinique's Even Better range is a good, safe choice, and a couple of dermatologists I've spoken to recommend Avene's D-Pigment Rich Dark Spot Lightener (£35, Boots). In both cases, though, you have to be rigorous in your application, and unless you use an spf over the top, they will have little or no effect.

You can, of course, just cover up. Estee Lauder's Double Wear range is one of the most natural-looking high pigment ranges around, and it comes in various coverages, from light to super-strength. I use the practically miraculous Stay-in-Place High Cover Concealer SPF 35 (£25) to hide small areas of pigmentation, and it's also great for under-eye shadows.

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